Perfect Binding is a form of bookbinding in which the book pages are bound by gluing together single sheets. With this binding method, the pages and cover are glued together at the spine with a strong yet flexible glue. The other three sides of the book are trimmed as needed to give them clean “perfect” edges. Because of this gluing process, creating the square spine, the pages do not lay flat while you are flipping through them.
Perfect bound books look clean and professional. They are ideal for catalogs, portfolios, photo albums, small-run comics, and self-published artists’ books.
Perfect binding works best for books that are 20+ printed pages. If less, it might be cheaper and more ideal to either saddle-stitch or wire/plastic bind your booklet.
Turnaround Times & Proofing
The standard turnaround time for the entire perfect binding process is 8 business days, not including weekends. The IC can have a proof copy ready in three (3) days, and the finished book(s) (5) five days after the proof is approved. This does not include weekends.
If you do not want a proof copy, your final book(s) will still take 5 business days.
We highly recommend getting a proof of your book. Proof copies are printed on the papers that you have selected at the sizes you submit. If you are supplying your own media, make sure to supply the IC enough paper for the proof & final copies.
Proofs are 1/2 price if you approve the order. If you decide to cancel the order, the proof copy will remain at full price.
Proofs are labeled with a sticker on the inside cover.
The perfect binding process at the Imaging Center is done all by hand and takes a considerable amount of production time which pulls trained staff & management away from their other duties. For this reason, the IC does reserve the right to deny certain amounts of perfect binding requests. We may recommend other options for booklet binding (saddle-stitch or wire/plastic coil)